The Transition of Motive Power in Japanese Small- and Medium-Sized Factories : In the Case of the Cotton Weaving Industry

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  • 日本における動力革命と中小企業 : 産地綿織物業の場合
  • ニホン ニオケル ドウリョク カクメイ ト チュウショウ コウギョウ サンチ メン オリモノギョウ ノ バアイ
  • 日本における動力革命と中小工業--産地綿織物業の場合
  • ニホン ニ オケル ドウリョク カクメイ ト チュウショウ コウギョウ サンチ

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The purpose of this paper is to consider the influence of the transition of motive power on small- and medium- sized manufacturing industries in prewar Japan through the case study of the cotton-weaving industry. In Section 2, using Kojo Tsuran (ed. Noshomusho) and Boshoku Yoran (ed: Boshoku-Zasshi-Sha), we examined the composition of movers in terms of horsepower in important cotton-weaving areas in 1909, 1916, and three points in the 1920s. Through this work, we gained the following conclusions; 1) Main movers in those areas were petrol engines in the post-Russo-Japanese War period, and then gas engines and steam engines in World War I. 2) But in the first half of the 1920s, considerable areas changed gas engines and steam engines for electric motors, and by the latter 1920s, this conversion had already finished. 3) And in previous studies, the impact on small- and medium-sized manufacturing industries of introducing electric power is overestimated. As we examined in Section 3, according to Denki Jigyo Yoran which was annually published by Teishin-sho, the electric power rate in Japanese cotton weaving areas fell in 1910-1916 and 1925-1927, and rose in 1917-1924. 0ntheother hand, the price of coal was stable just before World War I and in the middle of the 1920s, ascended conspicuously during World War I, and dropped at the beginning of the 1920s. Therefore, the relative price of electric power to coal came down in 1910-1919 and 1925-1927, and went up in 1920-1924. The electrification of motive power in the Japanese cotton weaving industry depended on not only the transition of the relative price of electric power to coal, but also the extent of spread of power distribution networks. In spite of the fall in the relative price of electric power to coal, until World War I the electrification had been limited because of insufficiency of power distribution networks. Conversely at the beginning of the 1920s when the relative price rose, the electrification steadily developed owing to the spread of the power distribution networks. In the middle of the 1920s when the fall in the relative price of electric power to coal coexisted with the spread of the power distribution networks, the electrification was completed at a stroke. Beside these two factors the diffusion of small-sized electromotors was also important for the electrification of motive power in the Japanese cotton weaving industry.

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